Teaching about the Roma Genocide

 Inclusion of the topic in the school curriculum

The Holocaust is part of the French school curriculum. In 2008, the Ministry of Education issued a official bulletin directed at all educational authorities and enforcing the teaching of the Shoah. Roma victims of the Genocide are included.

Yet, in the history teaching syllabi, Roma are referred to as “Tziganes” (“Gypsies”) and not “Roma”. The study of the extermination / Genocide of the Roma (and the Jews) is included in study of the Second World War. It is carried out at three levels of schooling:

Primary “extension course” (CM2): “extermination of the Jews and Roma: a crime against Humanity”. Junior secondary, new syllabus, “3e” class: “Theme 3: Second World War, a war of annihilation (…) This is the context in which the Genocide of Jews and Roma was perpetrated in Europe.”

Senior secondary, “1ère” class: Second World War, Genocide of the Jews and Roma – common strand of European history and memory – is a crucial element for understanding the nature of the conflict and its importance in contemporary history (…) the Nazi extermination policy focuses study on the Nazi universe and the systematic extermination of Jews and Roma.” This teaching is compulsory at all three levels.

In education: Official Bulletin. Elementary and secondary education NOR: MENE0800541 RLR : 514-5. OFFICIAL MEMORANDUM No. 2008-085 of the 3rd July 2008 - MEN DGESCO A – 1 DGESCO B2-3

Text directed at chief administrators of district educational authorities, the inspectors attached to them, directors of state education services in the “départements”, regional inspectors of education and inspectors responsible for primary education areas.

“The extermination of Europe’s Jews is written into the primary school syllabus. The new curricula applicable at the resumption of classes in 2008 confirm the obligation for the primary intermediate course to teach about the extermination of the Jews and Roma by the Nazis as a crime against Humanity. Concerned for the transmission of remembrance of these tragic events unique in the history of our continent, and for the necessary adjustment of instruction to pupils’ ages, the President of the Republic recently asked for remembrance of the child victims of the Shoah to be given prominence at school. The following recommendations are made on the basis of the proceedings of the working group headed by Ms Hélène Waysbord Loing, honorary inspector general, to whom the Minister of Education has tasked to examine the fulfilment, in educational terms, of the President’s request. Placed in its historical context, teaching of the Shoah has a civic purpose and meets a moral obligation. It is not only a matter of conveying a memory and elements of knowledge; besides, all pupils are to be given cultural grounding and food for thought that will equip them to reject all forms of racism and discrimination and to understand that, being contrary to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, they make democracy impossible.

Studying the Nazi extermination of Jews and Roma is intended to progressively instil exact knowledge of this major historical crime perpetrated in Europe, to put it back in the proper context of a racist ideology and a totalitarian political system. This study subsumes the worldwide awareness which, just after the Second World War, prompted the international agencies to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and create the concept of crime against Humanity whose non-limitation has been embodied in the national law of the democracies. This teaching is prescribed at three stages in the school syllabus: the extension phase of the intermediate primary school course (CM2), second year of junior secondary (3e), and the last two years of senior secondary (“première” and “terminale”). At each level, the approaches and procedures, and the documentation used, must be suited to the pupils’ age and degree of maturity.

Primary school study of the Shoah has to be sustained by the linkage of disciplines; it will be conducted chiefly in history lessons but may be backed by works of art or books in the context of historical, artistic or literary instruction. The goal at this level is to provide the first points of reference, chronological especially but also spatial since the European dimension of the crime and its organised nature must be portrayed. The pupils’ moral and civic education is also to be fostered by beginning to address the question of personal and collective responsibility, as well as that of resisting barbarism. Pupils will thus be guided to an incipient understanding of the concept of crime against Humanity and that of universal human rights.

Teachers have a free choice of teaching methods for tackling this education and there several possible approaches, often complementary. The topic of child victims is nevertheless a prime angle of approach at the aforementioned CM2 level; to start from a name, a face, a route, from the unique example of a family whose history is linked with nearby places – school, municipality, “département” – is an educational approach in keeping with children’s sensibilities. Working from an example, pupils grasp the systematic dehumanisation of the victims to the point of extermination: discrimination, arrests, internment camps, the trains, and then the extermination camps.

Using examples of children’s houses, children in hiding and people with the “Righteous among Nations” distinction, they will also approach the concepts of solidarity and universal values. These outstanding cases which have gone down in history will, thanks to their commemorative dimension, constitute the first instalment of a body of learning to be consolidated by history courses in junior then senior secondary school. Complementing the courses, the Day of Remembrance of Genocides and Prevention of Crimes against Humanity, instituted on 27 January, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Camp, will be a key moment of remembrance and reflection in schools.

To help teachers in this complex teaching that must simultaneously serve the need to preserve memory and to build the core of a historical culture, a handbook will be circulated to teachers of CM2 classes at the start of the next school year. An Internet portal will be created for their access, in addition, to a body of resources: the database on children deported from France, developed by the Shoah Memorial Foundation, bibliography, film compendium, list of sites and exemplary practice.

On behalf of the Minister for State Education. By delegation, The Director General of School Education Jean Louis NEMBRINI
 

 Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks

The Ministry bears responsibility for determining the national syllabi which establish for each level the aims and the essential knowledge which pupils are to acquire. To put the syllabi into practice, teachers choose what they consider the most suitable teaching approach. Among other resources, the textbook is an important aid to this. Publishers, in accordance with our tradition, have complete freedom and responsibility for designing and drafting the textbooks which they offer. The teaching teams in junior and senior secondary schools which, under the head teacher’s responsibility, make the choice of textbooks before proposing their adoption to the board of each school or to the council of teachers, where primary school is concerned, must have as their essential criteria conformity to the official national syllabi, scientific precision, and conscientious respect for opinions.

 Training of teachers and education professionals

The question of the Roma Genocide is only sketchily addressed in teachers’ basic training. For teachers generally, it is part and parcel of the duty of remembrance. For history teachers, the school syllabus recalls that the Second World War genocide not only affected the Jewish community, but notably the Roma too.
These teachers are accordingly trained in addressing the relevant issues, although it must be acknowledged that the main emphasis is placed on the Shoah.
 

 Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions

In secondary schools, projects that incorporate different areas of education are often offered to pupils. In addition, schools often organize a number of special events, including meetings with survivors, debates and exhibitions.